by Jean Meslier
39. THE FOURTH ERROR: THE CREATION AND SIN OF THE FIRST MAN.
Let us pass along to other errors. The Christian religion teaches and enjoins the belief that God created the first man and woman in a state of perfection, both of body and soul, i.e., in perfect health, in full use of reason, and perfectly innocent, free from all the infirmities of body and all the soul’s vices; that He placed them in a place of delights and felicity, which they called an Earthly Paradise, where they might have lived with all their posterity in perfect contentment, if they had always remained faithful and obedient to their God; but that they had, by a serpent’s instigation, indiscreetly eaten of a fruit that God had forbidden them, and for this fault, this incontinence, they had to be expelled from this Earthly Paradise, and to be, both they and all their posterity, i.e., all of humanity, subjected to all the miseries of this life; and not only all the miseries of this life, but also to reprobation and eternal damnation, which consists, in the doctrine of this Christian Religion, in being eternally rejected by God, as the eternal objects of his wrath and indignation, and to go to Hell to suffer eternally the cruelest, most fearsome imaginable torments and tortures: which eternal damnation and torments would have afflicted everyone, without any exceptions, forever, if this same God, as our Christ-cultists say, hadn’t taken pity on them and graciously presented a Redeemer to deliver them, which alleged Redeemer is, according to our Christ-cultists, their Jesus Christ, who was Jewish by nationality, the son of a carpenter named Joseph, and of a woman named Mary, who was nevertheless, as our Christ-cultists say, always a virgin, no less after as before her childbearing; which Jesus Christ, after having wandered throughout all Galilee as a fanatic, preaching a new doctrine of the near approach of a supposed Kingdom of Heaven, was finally crucified in Jerusalem, as a seducer of the masses and a seditionist, but which doesn’t prevent our Christ-cultists from recognizing him and worshiping him as a wholly divine man, as one who descended straight from Heaven, in the bosom of the above-mentioned, so-called Virgin[597] intacta nesciens virum verbo concepit filium, where, being made human, taking a body and a soul for the salvation of the world, they say that he voluntarily submitted to death, and even and even to a shameful death on the cross to save humanity, to atone for its sins, and to satisfy, by his death and by the shedding of his blood, the justice of God, his father, which was so outrageously offended by the sins of men, especially by the disobedience of the first man He created, by means of which satisfaction, which was, our Christ-cultists say, of infinite merit, they claim that he redeemed men from the eternal damnation and punishments of Hell. This is also why they call him, as I have already said, their divine savior and Redeemer; this is the doctrine and belief of our Christ-cultists on this matter, this is their Religion, teaching them this cute doctrine, and making them believe it on the threat of damnation, reprobation, and eternal curses.
But as this error contains much that is ridiculous and absurd, it’s requisite to try to clearly show its absurdity and ridiculousness: but I won’t stop here to refute this fable of the supposed creation of the first man and the first woman, or this fable of a garden, or an earthly Paradise, where God placed them; or that of a supposed fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, of which He would have forbidden them to eat, or that of a supposed seduction of this first man and woman, caused by the deceptive speech of a serpent, which was even subtler and craftier than man, with all the supposed perfection in which he had would have been created; or that of the supposed particular punishment of these two first heads of mankind, any more than that of the supposed punishment of the serpent, or, finally, that of a supposed virgin, who had divinely given birth to a son. I won't linger, I say, to refute all those fables in particular, or many other such things, there would be too much to say about these sorts of subjects, and that would lead me too far afield, it will suffice to note here only three main points of this doctrine, and to clearly show their falseness, their ridiculousness, and their absurdity.
First of all, it is false, ridiculous and absurd in its teaching that the vices and sins of men grievously offend God and that they provoke His wrath and indignation. 2) It is false, ridiculous, and absurd, in that it teaches and assures that God punishes the sins of men, not only with temporal castigation in this life, but also with eternal punishments in another one, and with the most terrible punishments imaginable. 3) It is false, ridiculous, and absurd, in that it teaches and requires the belief that God Himself became human, and that He delivered Himself up to die and to suffer the ignominious ordeal of the cross, to redeem mankind, who so grievously offended Him, and who deserved eternal damnation for their sins. All that, I say, is false, ridiculous, and absurd; I need to explain this more fully.
40. THE FIFTH ERROR: THE SUPPOSED INSULT AND OFFENSE THAT SIN CAUSES TO GOD; HIS SUPPOSED WRATH AND INDIGNATION, AND THE SUPPOSED TEMPORAL AND ETERNAL PUNISHMENT HE WILL ISSUE.
First of all, it is sure, clear, and quite obvious that the Christian religion teaches that the vices, sins, and evil deeds of men, and even many of those which seem like only slight failings, such as, for example, the one Adam and Eve, the first of the human race, committed in the terrestrial paradise by eating a fruit in the garden which God had forbidden them to eat; nevertheless, by so doing they offended God severely, whipping up His wrath and indignation. This is what all the pretended Holy Scriptures of our God-Christ-cultists expressly state; this is what our Christ-cultists say in all their books of piety, this is what they preach publicly in their temples, and what they teach in their schools and in all their private and public instruction in the temple. Their Saint Chrysostom[598] assures them in general that sin is that which most displeases God in the world. Their great Saint Augustine[599] said that those who commit sin offend against Jesus Christ, who reigns in Heaven. Their great Saint Paul[600] said that those who commit sin, crucify Jesus Christ again in their souls. And Saint Augustine[601] said that those who sin offend God more severely than did the Jews when the crucified him on Earth. The Council of Trent[602] called sin an offense against God, a very grave offense: Tantam Dei offensionem; this is why our Roman Christ-cultists sing in a dreary tone, at the beginning of their Lent, these words: Nostris malis offendimus tuam Deus clementiam... as well as: Nostra te conscientia grave offendisse monstrat, along with: multum quidem peccavimus, sed parce confitentibus[603]. Ibis et tu ad populum tuum... quia offendisti me in deserto sin in contradictione multitudinis[604]. Ne offendas quia abominatio est Domini Dei tui[605]. Constat enim Deum nostrum sic peccatis offensum ut mandaverit per prophetas suos[606]. And in their so-called holy book of Genesis[607] it is noted that in the days of Noah, God was so grievously offended by the sins of men that he felt struck by pain, even to His heart, and said that He repented of ever having created man... Tactus dolore cordis intrinsecus… Following this, all the Theologians … etc. Deus qui culpa offenderis poenitentia placaris. Orat.
All the Christ-cultists’ theologians all agree that the gravity of sin is so great that, even if every last human and all the angels in Heaven were gathered, to lament the insult against God, and make all due penitence for it, that could never, according to what they say, through their tears or their penitence, or any amount of good deeds they might do, worthily satisfy the justice of God, when He is offended by a single mortal sin. So, according to their statements, all the blood of the martyrs, for example, all the purity of the virgins, and all the merits of the angels and the saints could never, in themselves, properly satisfy the justice of a God when He is offended by sin; for that, the Christ-cultists say, the infinite merits of a God-Man were required to satisfy it properly, since, according to what they say, the injury sin causes to God, is in infinite, in a certain way, nothing less than infinite merit is required to worthily satisfy him. And, since all the merits of all creatures together is not of an infinite worth, it follows, they say, that all the merit of all creatures together would not be enough to worthily satisfy the justice of God, offended by mortal sin; and this is why,
they add, the Son of God himself, wishing to recover humanity, wished to incarnate himself and make himself like us, to worthily satisfy the justice of God, his eternal Father, for all the sins of men, and by the infinite merits of his death and passion.
The offense or insult caused by sin against God, our Christ-cultists say, is so great that it’s not even possible to conceive of it properly; it is, they say, incomprehensible, in a sense. Here’s their argument: to properly comprehend or grasp the immensity of an offense, one must first know the quality of the injured party, and the quality of the offender, since, they say, its gravity comes, not only from the quality or the nature of the offense itself, but it is also derived from the greatness, the excellence, and the dignity of the injured party, and also the unworthiness and lowliness of the offender. This is why, according to their way of thinking, to properly understand the excess of the insult or offense that sin causes to God, we must be able to know and measure, as it were, the greatness and holiness of God Himself, because the gravity of sin is proportional to the imposition that it has caused upon His grandeur and holiness; and since nobody can comprehend the grandeur and the excellence of God, since He is infinite in all manner of perfections, it is therefore impossible for mankind to properly understand the gravity of the offense and the injury that mortal sin causes to God. This gravity, or this enormity of mortal sin is so great, they say, that all the flames of Hell itself can do nothing to efface it. This is why their great St. Augustine said, and why all the Christ-cultist theologians after him, have said that it would be better for the whole world to perish, i.e., Heaven and Earth and all they contain, than to voluntarily commit a single mortal sin. To sin, says this great Doctor, is to dishonor God, and this, he says, is something nobody should ever do, even if all creatures might thereby perish. This insult, which is made against God by sin, is so terrible that it led Saint Anselm to say that if he saw, on one hand, Hell opened up with all its flames, and on the other, a single mortal sin to commit, and he had to choose one or the other, he would rather, he said, jump right into Hell, than voluntarily commit a single mortal sin.
This is what they say about the least sins, which they call venial sins; hence they say that venial sin is an offense and an evil of God’s, it follows that it is a greater evil than all the evils of all Creatures put together, that the saints would rather lose a thousand lives than intentionally commit a single venial sin[608], that nobody can honestly speak the whitest lie, to give God the greater glory, and that every creature should consider itself happy to sacrifice its being, to prevent the least venial sin, in addition that it is an incomparably greater evil than all other evils on earth, or than the desolation of all people, the ruin of all creatures, and the destruction of the entire universe. Does one not have to be insane to talk this way?
But that is what our pious and superstitious Christ-cultists say about the supposed offense and injury which sin gives to God. There would be plenty to say about this fine doctrine, in the interest of showing how absurd it is, but let’s skip over that. This is what they say, or how they have their God speak, in His anger and indignation. “These peoples,” they make Him say, “have provoked my wrath by their vices and wickedness, but I will also provoke them to my wrath, by my punishment: for the fire which was kindled in my anger, will burn to the bottom of the lowest places, it will devour the whole earth, and burn the foundations of the mountains; I will turn upon those”, they make Him say, “all sorts of evils and I will send them all my arrows, they will be burned by famine and will gnawed by heat, and by bitter destruction...[609]. I will send,” they make Him say, “my arrows of blood, and my sword will devour the flesh of those who have been slain, I will have my revenge on those who depart from me[610].” The same God, speaking by the mouth of His Prophet Isaiah, about the punishment He had meted out to certain people, said[611]: “I have trod on them in my wrath, and I have trampled on them in my fury.” This is what He said by His prophet Jeremiah[612], that “the children of Israel and Judah have never ceased every day to do evil, and therefore they have aroused my anger, my fury, and my indignation; ...but after I have scattered them in my anger, in my fury, and in my indignation...” And, speaking through His prophet Ezekiel, this is what he said[613]: “Since you have broken my laws and given in to all manner of vice and wickedness, I will not spare you, nor will I pity you, you will perish by plague, famine, and sword, but when I will have”, He said, “satisfied my anger and indignation against you, when my anger subsides, my outrage will end, and I will comfort you. I will wreak cruel vengeance upon them,” he said, by the same Prophet[614], “I will take them again in my fury and they will know that I am their God, when I take my vengeance upon them.” Along with plenty of similar language, which these Prophets attribute to their God.
This is also how they themselves spoke of the anger, of the indignation, and of the fury of their God. When the people of Israel murmured against Moses, having no meat to eat, it says[615] that God became wrathful at them and that, having sent them abundant quails, they ate their fill, but that immediately afterwards the wrath of God was kindled against them, and He struck them with a cruel plague. “They have rejected God's law,” said the Prophet Isaiah[616], “they have despised His word; this is why,” he said, “the wrath of God was kindled against His people, He stretched out His hand upon on them, He has smitten them, the mountains have been shaken, and the corpses of the dead were cast out and lie as carrion in the streets, and still, His wrath,” he said, “was not appeased by this, but His arm is stretched out still to strike.” “He has broken,” says Jeremiah[617], “the strength of Israel in the fury of His wrath.” “The whole Earth was shaken by the anger of the Lord,” said Isaiah[618]. “Lord,” said King David[619] “rebuke me not in Thy wrath, nor punish me in Thy anger.” “I mixed,” he said[620], “ashes with my bread and my tears mingled with my drink, in my fear of Thy anger and Thy indignation.” “The Lord,” he also said, “will mock all sinners, He will address them in His anger, and will destroy them in His fury.” Finally it is specifically stated in their book on the creation of the world that God cursed the Earth because of sin, which the first man committed by eating a forbidden fruit; it is expressly stated that He was driven out of the Earthly Paradise for this one fault, and that for this one reason, he and all his descendants were condemned to death and to all the miseries of this life; and not only to all the miseries of this life but also, as our Christ-cultists say, to eternal damnation; such that all men who have since come, or who will come hereafter, until the end of time, are not and will not, from birth, as their St. Paul[621] put it, anything but the children of wrath, deserving of eternal punishment. Eramus enim naturae filii irae...[622] Venit enim ira Dei in filios diffidentiae.
All these testimonies, and a great many others that I could add, clearly show that the Christian Religion believes and teaches that the vices and sins of men, including those that would only seem like very slight faults, offend God very grievously, and stoke His wrath, His indignation, and His fury. But it’s a mistake to believe and think than an all-powerful, infinitely perfect being like a God, could truly be offended by any human vice or wickedness, and it is equally erroneous to believe and think than an immutable, infinitely perfect and wise being, as a God should be, can truly be moved by anger, fury, or indignation, or indeed any other passion.
This is will clearly prove by the following argument: a being who would be infinitely superior to all offence and injury, cannot be truly offended by anything, nor truly receive any harm anyone or anything. And a being who would be all powerful and infinitely perfect would, by nature, be infinitely superior to all offences and all injury, not only because He would remove and prevent, by His omnipotence, anything that seemed capable of harming Him or causing Him the least injury or displeasure, but also because He would be, by His very nature, invulnerable, inalterable, and impassive and being, by its very nature, invulnerable, inalterable and impassible, it clearly follows that He would be completely sup
erior to every offense, and all insults, and consequently, that He can’t be offended by the vices, or by the wickedness of men, far from this supposedly infinite greatness and majesty of God constituting a reason to say that the vices and sins of humanity cause all the more grievous offense as He is elevated above men in greatness and all the perfections; it would, on the contrary, constitute a reason to say that they would in no way cause any offense, and that they would not even be capable of offending Him in any way, since He would be infinitely superior to anything that humans could do to offend Him; if all men, for example, cast all their arrows and shot all their rifles and cannons at the Sun and Moon, could they ever make a single hole, or harm it in the slightest? Far from it! Why? Because they are too far above the arrows that men could ever launch at them, and that they are completely out of reach of their rifles and their whole artillery. Similarly, even if these men wanted to throw mud at the Sun or Moon, could they make any stain on it? Not at all! Why? Because they are far too high beyond anything humans could do, for or against them. With all the more reason, as God is infinitely above anything men might be able to do for Him or against Him, all the good, or even all the evil they could ever do, is incapable of doing any good or any evil to God, and consequently, all their vices, all their sins, and all their wickedness is incapable of offending Him in any way. This is what our Christ-cultists themselves are ultimately forced to recognize, according to what it says in their so-called Holy Books, especially in Job[623], where it says: “What? Can man be compared to God? If man is righteous, is God not better? And if his life is without stain, what good will that do Him? And besides, consider the sky, contemplate the stars above you: if you sin, what harm do you cause to God? And if you multiply your crimes and your sins, how will you possibly harm Him? Similarly, if you're righteous, how will this benefit God? What will He get out of it? None at all, man’s iniquity only hurts himself, and his virtue is only useful and advantageous to himself, and not to God.